Jamie’s Italian Birmingham Review, Kids Eat Free for the Summer

Jamie’s Italian Birmingham

We recently spent the afternoon at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery hunting for Dippy the Dinosaur. Dinosaur hunting is hungry work so we decided to head to Jamie’s Italian in the Birmingham Bull Ring for a family dinner. We have eaten at Jamie’s Italian a few years ago and were impressed so were looking forward to going back again.

Hungry afternoon an afternoon of dinosaur hunting

Jamie’s Italian is a chained owned by chef Jamie Oliver, check out the website for a restaurant near you. The concept behind Jamie’s Italian is to offer fresh and delicious dishes using the best quality seasonal ingredients.

Another reason for us choosing Jamie’s Italian was their “Kids Eat Free” offer. For every paying adult you can claim a free child meal, drink and dessert. The offer is currently on at participating restaurants from 20th July until 19th August 2018.

When we arrived we were seated quickly and given the menus to browse. There was plenty to chose from including a separate vegan and vegetarian menu, as well as daily special offers. Mini was given a kids pack, which I think is one of the best we have seen at a restaurant. Inside there was a pack of crayons, stickers to colour in and an activity booklet with lots of things to do inside. Mini certainly enjoyed using the pack and kept her entertained until her food arrived.

The atmosphere at Jamie’s Italian in Birmingham is quite relaxed and informal. You can dress up if you’d like however you wouldn’t feel out of place dressed more casually. The staff are also happy to help explain the menu or talk through the dishes if you require.

Jamie’s Italian Gold Club

We are also members of Jamie’s Italian Gold Club. This is free to join and gives you access to great offers and extras when you dine. We were given a free mini starter of Jamie’s Nachos, which were tasty but not what we were expecting from the title as they were small Ravioli parcels. When you dine you hand your gold card to your waiter who scans it and tells you what special offers are available to you. The offer for July was £10 off your total bill, but we were told this couldn’t be used in addition to the kids eat free offer. However, as it was my birthday recently there was a birthday treat for me, which could be used with the kids offer. I was kindly given a free chocolate brownie for my pudding and a bottle of Prosecco. As I’m pregnant, they offered to wrapp the Prosecco for us to take home to enjoy later.

Our Food

Most of the items on the children’s menu come as either a little kids or big kids portion, and they all display the nutritional information. Mini chose the “Five a Day Picnic Box” which included a grilled chicken breast roll, sweet potato fries, a salad shaker and an apple. It was refreshing to see some healthy and interesting items on a children’s menu as an alternative to the usual nuggets and chips. The meal was bright and colourful and Mini couldn’t wait to get stuck in, choosing a bite of her apple first.

Children’s Five a Day Picnic Box

I chose the Lamb Pappardelle and a Refresher non-alcoholic cocktail to drink. The pasta was delicious, lots of flavour and the sauce was beautifully rich. I would have liked slightly more lamb pieces in the sauce though to make it even better. I also shared a portion of Polenta Chips with Team Mack, which were great to mop up the extra sauce from my pasta.

Refresher Non-Alcoholic Cocktail

Lamb Pappardelle

Mr Mack had the Genovese Pesto Gnocchi and a Blood Orange Blast to drink. This isn’t something he has had before, but he likes trying out new things. He said it was quite a simple dish but it had really fresh flavours and he enjoyed the texture of the gnocchi.

Genovese Pesto Gnocchi and Polenta Chips

Mr Mack was too full for dessert however I couldn’t turn down my free birthday brownie. As soon as Mini heard the word brownie she asked if she could have one too and the waitress kindly agreed to do her a small portion as part of her meal deal. The brownie was so good, it was warm and extremely gooey, just how a brownie should be, served with vanilla ice cream and topped with crunchy popcorn.

Popcorn Topped Chocolate Brownie

Team Mack all enjoyed their food and all agreed there were plenty of other things that we would like to try on the menu. One negative is that we did find that the service was a bit slow during our visit. However, we would be happy to return for a future visit. I think that the food is good value for money for a family treat, and even more so with the kids eat free offer. I would also definitely recommend signing up to the gold club for additional freebies and money off vouchers.

We love Jamie’s Italian too – the food is always great and I’ve found they’re always really good with our kids too (although I have to say that the service is never speedy for us either!). Your pasta looked fantastic and you can’t go wrong with the chocolate brownie, can you? I’d not heard of the gold club before though, I’ll have to look into that as we’re there enough to make good use of it.

Oh wow this food looks incredible! I’ve always wanted to visit a Jamie’s Italian, but without one near us we haven’t managed to yet. We really must because the children’s menu is really impressive for a high-street chain 🙂

Oh we love Jamies here too! Although we haven’t been for a while but the kids eat free deal may well tempt us. The Summer holidays can be so expensive so it’s great to see well known brands helping out!